Wellspring UMC; Fourth
Sunday after Pentecost; June 8, 2008: “Caring as Jesus Cares”:
-Matthew
9: 9-13, 18-26
I
invite you to pull out your bulletins and look at the prayer requests listed
there. Have you ever noticed that the
vast majority of the requests on that list, or any prayer list for that matter,
are for some form of healing? Prayers
for victims of natural disasters, for children, youth, and adults who have
diseases or sicknesses, or even for those who are suffering because those
diseases or sicknesses have affected them.
The prayers we pray are often prayers for healing.
Are
there times when we reflect upon our faith and where God is active in our
lives? In such times, do we think about
where we’ve come from? Do we think about
how far we have to go? Do we ever find
ourselves wishing we were more faithful than we are? Do we ever wish for healing from all the things that get in the
way of God working fully in our lives?
The reflections we make about our faith are often reflections about
wholeness and healing, so we might be one with Christ.
Do
we ever find ourselves reading passages from the Bible like those read today
and wish that we could experience the same kinds of miracles they did? Do we ever wonder what it would have been
like to live back then? Do we ever
wonder what would happen if what happened then, happened now? Would there be a healing of our souls? In comparing our times with those of the
past, there is always a wondering, and often that wondering entails a hope for
change, transformation, or healing.
Today we enter the scriptures
immersed in a series of ‘healing’ passages.
Chapters 8-9 of Matthew’s Gospel reveal Jesus healing person after
person. It’s like Jesus, after laying it
on them in the Sermon on the Mount, is suddenly energized to live out what he
said on that mountaintop, and God provides the opportunities to do just that.
Time and time and time again, someone was
hurting, someone needed something, or something needed to be done, and Jesus
did what He needed to do. Sometimes Jesus went to them, sometimes they came to
Him, but God’s power through Jesus transformed them. Jesus’ ability to make things right, brought
wholeness and life to those who came.
Jesus’ caring revealed and made real the
In these chapters we catch a glimpse
of Jesus the Healer, and what an image Matthew paints for us. And though He’s the main character, He’s not
the only character in the stories. He is
not alone.
As
we look over these chapters we come across some wonderfully interesting
folks. We find ourselves face to face
with those in need of healing –the cripple, blind, demented, paralyzed, and
even the dead. We run up against family
members and friends of those in need – Peter, the friends who bring the
paralytic on his mat, the father of a dead girl. We even encounter some religious leaders who
are critical of Jesus’ work and ministry.
But the ones that remain unnamed but were certainly there, the ones who
were watching every move and taking notes, were the disciples.
Up
to this point Matthew only names Peter, Andrew, James and John as the disciples
called to follow, but by the second verse of Chapter 10 we discover that Jesus
has gathered the full twelve who would become the core to Christ’s
ministry. They were there when Jesus
preached the mountain sermon, then they followed him through the mountainsides,
into
I
don’t know about you, but for me I believe that would be a daunting task. To be with this man who could make the dead
rise and cure the sick and lame would in itself be overwhelming, but to then be
invited to do the same in His name, well that would be incredibly
intimidating. And yet, whether they knew
it or not, that’s exactly what Jesus was doing with them as he calls Matthew to
follow then leads them to a party with tax collectors. It’s a key component in Christ’s healing of
the woman with the hemorrhage and raising this child. Jesus reveals to them that the power of God
is theirs if they live in faith and follow God’s lead.
Though our passages today don’t
include this, soon after this healing and raising of the child, Jesus sends out
the twelve to go into the world to do what he’s done. To proclaim release to captives, and to
release them to wholeness, to be God’s hands and voice in a world of pain, to
care as Jesus cared, and He had to convince them that, whether or not they
believed they could do it, they could with God’s help. After all, Jesus’ ability to do what He did
was only because God did it through Him.
We
pray for healing, we doubt our faith, and we wish for life now, to be like it
was then. At times, such things can be daunting and overwhelming. In fact, as disciples of Jesus ourselves, we
feel a lot like those twelve sent out into the world to proclaim Jesus and heal
in His name, but who still wondered how it would all play out and whether they
could do it.
And
honestly, like them, I’m not sure if there is ever 100% assurance that we can
do everything God needs us to do. All we
do know is that we are called to do what they did – trust, follow, and do what
the Spirit calls us to do. To model
ourselves after Jesus’ way, and care as Jesus did.
Four years ago this congregation
went through a period of discernment to discover and solidify God’s mission and
vision for Wellspring, and after much prayer, discussion, and sharing, what
bubbled to the surface was our current mission statement, “To Care as Jesus Cares...”
At that time, and still today, it seemed a simple task, but in
reflecting upon such a call it quickly became, and becomes, daunting, for to
care as Jesus cares implies that we, like the disciples long ago, are able to
do what Jesus did.
To care as Jesus cares, means that
we are able to be a part of the healing and wholeness of the world. To care as Jesus cares, intends to call us
out of our own comfort zones and move us to go where Jesus did – to the least,
the lost, the hungry, and hurting. To
care as Jesus cares is to do what Jesus calls us to do, trust in faith –
sometimes blind faith – that God will make a way where there seems to be no
way.
Since the adoption of our mission
statement, however, we’ve seen countless ways in which Jesus’ caring is not
just a desire but that which is realized.
In the caring for the Mattaponi Indians, God has used Wellspring to
bring wholeness, hope, and healing to folks in need. In caring for those affected by malaria
through the Nothing But Nets campaign, God provided over $1400 dollars through
us to save lives and keep health to those at risk. In caring for the patients at
Oh, we might not know how it works,
we might not see immediate results, but when we walk faithfully with Jesus and
follow where He leads, wholeness and healing is realized, through us and even
to us. For Jesus is the source of that
healing, and in living out of that source, God’s Kingdom comes on earth as it
is in heaven.
As
I reflect upon the last five years, it’s amazing to see how our faith in God
and God’s faith is us has brought healing and wholeness to this community of
faith. Like those disciples long ago, we
have witnessed Jesus do what some believed couldn’t have been done. Like the original twelve, we’ve seen Jesus
take our doubt, confusion, questions, and difficult times and transform them
into hope and healing, not just for us but for those around us. Like Jesus’
disciples, God has made a way for us to be a part of God’s work in the world,
thus revealing true life to those in need.
Whether blindly or with confidence, like Jesus’ disciples, we have been
able to give ourselves to Jesus and say, “Show me the way,” and He did. And look at the results.
It
is amazing what God has done through the partnership God created between us,
for in following God, God has made a way for true wholeness and healing to
come. In following, God has laid the
foundation for this congregation to be even more amazing instruments of God’s
healing and wholeness for the future.
Our
scriptures today remind us that God is the source of all healing, and that such
healing reveals the inbreaking of the Kingdom of God. As such we celebrate that the very One who
led His disciples years ago, continues to lead this church and her people. The same one who brought wholeness to those
in Palestine, is the same one who brought the healing we needed. The same one who made the paralyzed move,
calmed the storms, brought sight and sound to the deaf and mute, and raised the
dead, is the same one who has done this in our lives, both collectively and
individually. Jesus Christ is the same
yesterday, today, and tomorrow, and that same Jesus is with us as God leads us
into our respective futures.
So often when it comes to faith and
prayer we have our doubts and we wonder how it will all turn out. Maybe right now, some of you have doubts and
are wondering how everything will turn out at Wellspring. The great Good News is that through Christ
comes healing and wholeness. Through
Christ God works to allow us the privilege of serving where we are sent,
knowing full well that God is with us.
Through Christ, a way is made, even when we can’t see how, and in it’s
wake, healing and wholeness become a part of life.
Our call, dear friends is the care as Jesus cares. Such caring is filled with ups and downs, but the amazing thing about it, is that when we do, God makes a way for God’s will to be done. We may not like it, we may have our doubts, but in the end, God continues, as God has always done, to bring about God’s desire which is Joy, Hope, Healing and wholeness, for the world, and for us. Thanks be to God. Amen.